Okay now, note that Kagome's mom's name "Sayoko" nor Inuyasha's family's surname "Fukui" are just made up by me. They are not their real names in anime or manga.

Chapter 4 – Complications

"Inuyasha..." said a voice from somewhere far away. "Inuyasha, wake up..."

First Inuyasha tweaked his ears, then opened his eyes slowly. He saw his mother sitting next to him, holding his hand.

"You did it", she smiled. "The pain pump surgery is over."

But Izayoi wasn't the only person at Inuyasha's bedside. Kagome's mom was standing on the other side, looking at the boy.

"Oh, I don't wonder why my daughter likes you!" said her cheerful voice. "You are a very handsome young man!"

Izayoi nodded with a smile and turned her face towards Inuyasha.

Soon, a doctor came into the room.

"Hello there! Nice to see you up, Inuyasha!" he greeted and got closer to his bed. "Okay, so now the pain pump is installed. We will start by giving a small dose of morphine for now. And to let you know, the leg surgery will be tomorrow morning at about 10 o' clock."

"Thank you so much!" Izayoi smiled and bowed.

Izayoi felt bad leaving Inuyasha in the hospital alone like this, but she had to. And, after all, a 15-year-old could be in hospital on his own without a parent beside all the time. But something made things easier...

"Inu-" Izayoi was about to say bye-bye, but noticed he was already asleep. Izayoi pet his chest very gentlly, trying not to wake him up. She gathered her stuff and put her coat and scarf on. On the other side of the room, on the first bed, was Kagome's bed. Her mom sat next to the empty bed space, knitting. Izayoi walked to her.

"Oh dear", she smiled. "During all this hassle, we didn't even get to introduce ourselves! I am Izayo Fukui."

"Sayoko Higurashi", Kagome's mama answered. "Pleased to meet you!"

Izayoi nodded as they shook hands.

"May I ask, why are you still sitting here? Brain surgeries can take a long time so she could be out of recovery and back here maybe tomorrow... I know since Inuyasha has had a few brain surgeries..." Izayoi told.

"I got a call from the theatre almost an hour ago, and they told the surgery is almost over. They'll invite me to the recovery room any minute."

"So I guess we will meet here again tomorrow."

"Yes, I think so."

But something was wrong – Sayoko could feel it. It had been almost an hour and a half since the call. But her phone hadn't rang again. She was getting worried.

There she still sat, in the dark room. She could hear some quiet sounds of moving beds and steps from behind the room's door. Sayoko sighed. Then she heard Inuyasha moan:

"Nnnaaaa..."

Sayoko smiled a bit, got up from the chair and walked to Inuyasha, the bed next to the window.

"Naaah.."

"You sleep at day and stay awake at night, eh?" she said with a little smile. "You should get some more sleep. It's almost 10 o' clock."

The phone rang.

Sayoko ran back to the other side of the room to Kagome's bed. She grabbed the phone from the table and quickly pressed the button.

"Sa-Sayoko Higurashi", she answered. She was so nervous her voice was stammering.

"Well, the... Kagome's surgery is over. But... We have to tell you something about some unfortunate complications there has been..." the voice from the phone explained.

"Please get to the point", Sayoko said with a tense voice.

"Well, the surgery went well for the first hour. But suddenly we found a tumor. A huge tumor. We had to remove it before it starts to spread and kill her."

For a while Sayoko just held the phone with shaking hands. "But... How is she?"

"She is currenty in intensive care", the voice said. "And, we are very sorry about this, but... because the mass of the brain that we had to remove was so big, she will be left with permanent disabilities. And, as for now... She is an induced coma. And because of that, we had to do a tracheostomy, which is breathing tube in her neck."

Sayko burst into tears. "My daugher... My baby... Why?"

"We are so sorry."

Sayoko headed to the intensive care.

"We are sorry to tell but you can't spend the night by your daughter's bedside. We don't accept visitors before 9 o' clock in the morning and after 7 o' clock in the evening", nurse said.

"Could I still get to say goodbye to her?" she asked with a sad face. "Just those few words? Please..."

So she walked through the ward and finally got to her child. She laid on the bed, with nasal cannulas, cords that left to beeping machines, and also a breathing tube on her neck. Again, Sayoko's eyes burst in tears.

"Sleep well, honey", she sobbed while gently stroking the girl's forehead.

The next morning whole Fukui family woke up at the same time, 8 o' clock. Both Izayoi and Inutaisho had decided to have a day off from work. They had decided to go to Inuyasha into the hospital. But only Izayoi would go before the surgery. The men of the family would come after Izayoi calls them and tell when the surgery would be over.

Everyone sat around the kitchen table, eating bread and drinking coffee. Izayoi was very depressed. Inutaisho stared at her while sipping his coffee. Nobody said a word.

"There, there", Inutaisho smiled a little and stroke his wife's shoulder. "This surgery will be nothing compared to what he has gone through in his life. He'll be home in less than a week."

"...But it won't be easy", Izayoi said quietly. "The fixators' pin sites need to be cared and cleaned every morning... He will be in pain... Well, maybe not since he has the pump but..."

"Dear, you are taking this too harshly", Inutaisho said. Then something very surprising happened.

Sesshomaru sipped his coffee, put the mug down and said: "This is nothing like the scoliosis surgery. Don't worry. Everything will be alright."

The parents looked at him with eyes wide. Sesshomaru almost never got into a conversation unless it was about himself.

"Well..." Inutaiso mumbled. "You heard him. So, son. Will you join us to see Inuyasha later today?"

"Yes."

"I will call you when I get to Inuyasha into the ward", Izayoi said as she dressed up in her outerwear.

"We'll be waiting."

Izayoi drove all the way to the Tokyo's Children's Hospital. She took the elevator to the floor six, where the surgical ward was.

Then to the room nine...

But Kagome wasn't there. The first bed place was empty. No sign of her mother either. Izayoi got a bit worried, but sighed and walked to the other side of the room, where Inuyasha's bed was. He was lying on his back and breathing calmly. When he saw him mother, he turned his eyes towards her and smiled.

"Hey there", Izayoi chuckled and sat down on the chair. She ruffled his hair and smiled like him.

And so it was almost 10 o' clock when two nurses and one unfamiliar man came to the room.

"Good morning", the man greeted and shook Izayoi's hand. Inuyasha watched carefully. "I am Yuuda, and I will be your surgeon today. So, in the surgery we will stabilize his broken femur, tibia and fibula, and a joint replacement for his hip. This will be quite long, but not as difficult as the scoliosis surgery he's had."

Izayoi watched slowly as her son was pushed out of the room in his bed. Then she heard a voice from the corridor:

"Aaan..." And the ward's door closed.

Izayoi had brought herself a book to read while Inuyasha was in theatre. She started reading calmly, until she heard a bed coming in from the ward's door. It's rolling wheels came closer and closer, until the room's door opened...

It was Sayoko. She kept the door open as a nurse pushed the bed in... And it was Kagome. There was a monitor following her heart beat and oxygen saturation on her right finger. But she didn't have nasal strips or any other tubes... Except a neck ventilator tube on her throat, which looked really scary. Izayoi stared at this while the bed was stopped in it's place. Sayoko sat down on her chair, in the verge of tears.

"M...may I ask you, what has happened?" Izayoi asked carefully and got closer.

"The...they found a... a... a tumor, a very big one, and it had to be removed... And now she... She could... actually, Will end up something like Inuyasha... For the... For the rest of her life!" And she started crying. Izayoi walked to here and hugged her.

"There there..." she shushed. She couldn't really make up anything good to say. "At least she didn't die."

An hour went by. The machine beeped as Sayoko cried hopelessly. Izayoi took her chair and moved beside Sayoko. The mothers held each others hands. They heard the hissing voice coming from the ventilator as Kagome's chest went up and down.

Another hour went by. Nothing had changed. But Izayoi was getting hungry. She took a look at her clock and asked Sayoko:

"I'll go to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Would you like me to bring you something?"

First Sayoko didn't say anything, just tried to wipe her tears. She took a deep breath and answered:

"That would be nice." She took her wallet out from her bag and handed it towards Izayoi.

"Please, let me pay", Izayoi said and pushed the wallet back. Sayoko gave her a one-second, little smile.

Izayoi was standing in the line towards the checkout. She wanted to cheer Sayoko up as much as possible by getting her a frappuccino and a piece of cream cake with strawberries on. For herself, she took a normal take away coffee and a croissant.

"Knock knock", Izayoi said with a fake smile as she entered room nine. Sayoko was stroking her daughter's hair.

"Here you go", Izayoi gave her the cake slice and frappuccino. This made her smile a bit.

"Thank you..." she thanked and took a sip. The mothers in the room kept sipping their coffees quietly. And when the cake and croissant were finished, Sayoko left out a big sigh and rubbed her eyebrow.

"I want to ask something", she said.

"Go on."

"Now that my sweetheart will be like... like Inuyasha, no offence, but... how is it like to have a child so severely disabled? How is it like to feed him, change diapers, bathing, changing clothes...?"

"Well, I'd actually say it's not that hard for me. Sometimes I feel more like is Inuyasha happy, or suffering. Our family is doing everything we can to give him a happy life, but since there's no way for him to tell us, we can only guess. But there is one thing that maybe makes Kagome's situation worse..."

"What is it?"

"You see, Inuyasha has never moved, walked or eaten, so he doesn't know what he's missing. But Kagome has liven pretty normal life, and now everything will be lost. Of course, we don't know how severely disabled she'll be, but if the worst comes to worst, she would be paralyzed and won't be able to eat and speak..."

A doctor came in. He had some folders in his hands.

"Hello, mrs. Higurashi. I am Kagome's doctor, and I have good and bad news."

"Good news first", she said.

"Her Intacranial pressure has got lower, so we can stop giving her medication that causes the coma. We assume she will wake up within hours to weeks. Then the bad news. As almost 1/6 of her brain was removed, she is now severely disabled. She has lost her faculty of speech and motility.

Again, Sayoko bursted in tears, and leaned to Izayoi.

"We are very sorry. We did all we could."

About an hour went by. The only sounds in room nine were the ventilator hissing and machine's beeping. The mothers just sat side by side next to Kagome.

Until suddenly:

Inuyasha's bed was brought inside. Izayoi got up and grabbed her chair.

"Mind if...?" she asked before leaving Sayoko side.

"Of course not."

Izayoi placed her chair next to Inuyasha and placed her hand on his chest. He opened his eyes.

"Are you in pain?" she asked. Just a few seconds after that, a nurse came into the room.

"Here you go, some morphine for your pain pump."

Izayoi had just grabbed her iPhone and called Inutaisho.

"Hello?" said his voice from the phone. He had turned speaker on as Sesshomaru had told him so.

"Okay now. The surgery is over, Inuyasha is awake and back in the ward."

"We'll be there", Inutaisho said, turning at Sesshomaru, who was standing right next to him. "Right, son?"

"Yes."

As the duo, father and elder son, were putting on their outerwear, Inutaisho told Sesshomaru:

"Listen, son... I have been noticing something... something different about you since Inuyasha's scoliosis surgery."

Sesshomaru gave no answer.

"You have been more helpful taking part in taking care of Inuyasha... You have started to speak more than before... You don't just sit in your room and study..."

"And?"

"Well... Yeah, okay, maybe it's just me."

From the outside Sesshomaru kept his calm face, but inside, he felt a bit uneasy.

Sesshomaru opened their apartment's door, his father coming behind him. But right before Sesshomaru closed the door, he could hear his father say:

"It's like your heart is starting to come alive."

Like usually, when visiting someone dear to you was in hospital, you bring them something to cheer them up. But what would cheer Inuyasha? He couldn't eat candy or drink soda. Maybe a card?

And so, they headed to the hospital's cafe. Next to it was a small kiosk. Inutaisho bought a card with a picture of Thumper from Bambi. He wrote it it: "Get Well Soon, dear Inuyasha. Dad, Sesshomaru..." Of course, they left some space for Izayoi to sign it, too.

Then they took the elevator to the floor six. They stepped in from the ward's doors. Inutaisho was walking in front of Sesshomaru. He looked around.

"...What was his room number again...?"

"Nine", Sesshomaru answered. Inutaisho looked over his shoulder and nodded with a smile.

There it was – room number nine. Inutaisho stopped right in front of the door and took a deep breath.

"Pull yourself together. It's not like there is someone dying", Sesshomaru sighed. And so they opened the door...

But as the first bed was Kagome's, she was the first thing they saw. They both stared at the girl in her respirator, until Inutaisho turned towards Sesshomaru and whispered in his ear:

"No-one dying, huh?" But then, turned towards the other side of the room, to the bed next to the window. They walked there saw them: Inuyasha lying in his bed on his back, and Izayoi by his side, rubbing his dog ear. And when he saw his dad and big brother, Inuyasha gave a huge smile, baring his fangs.

"Hey there, buddy..." Inutaisho smiled and gave the card and a pencil to his wife. She took it, read and wrote "mom" in it.

"Sesshomaru, would you please get a chair for both me and you?" Inutaisho asked. Sesshomaru nodded and walked out of the room.

"Wait just a little", Inutaisho told Izayoi and walked towards Kagome. He was really shocked seeing her, but... there was something familiar in her.

"Hello, my name is Inutaisho Fukui, Inuyasha's father."

"Sayoko Higurashi, Kagome's mother, nice to meet you."

"I knew it! This girl is Kagome!"

"...Do we know you?"

"Well, sort of. I have recieved some notes from the school these two are in, that during recesses Kagome sometimes comes to Inuyasha and just talks to him like to any other, er, normal person, and holds his hand."

Sayoko turned her face to her daughter.

"That is so sweet", she mumbled quietly.

"Here", said Sesshomaru, who just brough two chairs into the room. He put them down around his brother's bed. He and Inutaisho sat down.

"We haven't seen your leg yet. Want to have a look?" Izayoi.

As expected, Inuyasha didn't answer any way. But still, Izayoi grabbed the blanket and revealed her son's lower body. And the leg looked absolutely horrible. On the thigh, there were three thick metal spikes that had been drilled into the bone. A black bar held the spikes together. And the leg had two metal rings around it, and, like in the thigh, there were also spikes going into his leg. All spike roots were covered with white cotton pads.

"...Are they sure he is in no pain?" Izayoi asked a bit worried.

"Don't worry, there is no way he'd have any pain with the pain pump."

Suddenly:

"Mmma...mma..."